Longtime jewelry store owner dies

Wednesday

Aug 18, 2010 at 2:00 PMAug 18, 2010 at 2:01 PM

DAVID KECK, Special to the Daily Press

The longtime owner of the first jewelry store in Victorville died Thursday.

John H. Jantz, 67, operated Jantz Jewelers in Victorville after his father, David Jantz, died in 1986, according to family and friends. They described him as a kind man who valued his friends and customers.

"Customer service was always first," said Cindy Simon, who worked for Jantz at the jewelry store for more than 15 years and said she treated her more as a friend than employee. "He continued the legacy his father started as far as trust with his customers."

Some of his customers shopped at the store the span of the five decades the Jantz family operated it, Simon said. The store relied little on advertising, instead broadening its customer base through reputation and word of mouth, she said.

His father, David Jantz, purchased the store on Seventh Street in Old Town in 1958, later moving it near the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds.

John Jantz worked at the store before graduating from Victor Valley High School and going off to college at San Diego State University. He then served 12 years in the Air Force, rising to the rank of captain.

He was stationed in Japan for most of his military career, said Midge McDonnell, Jantz's cousin and an employee of the Daily Press. He came back with an appreciation for Asian art and culture, she said.

He went back to work in his father's business after returning to the U.S.

Ten years after his father died, Jantz moved his store to a shopping center on Bear Valley Road.

John H. Jantz was born in Enid, Okla., on Nov. 23, 1942. He never married and had no children. He is survived by cousins McDonnell, Pat Vest, Mike Huebert and Barry Huebert, and longtime friends Simon, Gloria McGee and Robert FitzSimmons, who is also an employee of the Daily Press.

The cause of Jantz's death was not disclosed. Funeral arrangements are pending.

To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.